The Crimson Tempest
by sofeyrose
Summary: Uzumaki's don't take shit from anyone. You mess with them, and they'll mess with you. This is all too true for the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Akira, and unfortunately for Konoha, they messed with her. When hidden truths are revealed and an offer from a certain snake is made, what is a Jinchuriki to do? Simple:escape.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

If anyone had asked Uzumaki Akira ahead of time if she wanted to join the Academy and become a shinobi for Konoha, she'd have probably laughed in their face. That, or punch the hell out of them, kick them where the sun don't shine and beat them half to death. She'd probably try and bite their fingers off too, just for good measure.

First, of course, Akira would be tempted to beat the shit out of whatever bastard asked her that question in the first place. As far as she was concerned, Konoha was a piece of crap. Granted, it had its uses and extremely valuable resources-valuable for herself, that is-but other than that, in her view, it was a shit-infested crap of a village that was so smug in its supremacy that they'd let their security get so lax to the point even an Academy student could probably waltz into the libary under a Henge and come out with instructions on B-ranked techniques or higher. It baffled her that the other hidden villages hadn't already taken advantage of this, but perhaps they had. If they were, they were doing a damn fine job at it. Akira sometimes had to suppress the urges to find out if they truly were just so she could give them a pat on the back.

But still, if someone had asked-she probably, no, _would _most definitely pummel them until they were a bloody pulp. Her, a shinobi, for this Kami forsaken crap of a village? Akira found such a thing laughable at best, and absolutely insulting at worse. There was no way in the nine levels of hell she was going to become a shinobi for a village that treated her as less than dirt. Akira had silently promised herself that back when she was younger, and Akira didn't break her promises, ever.

So why was it that she had not pummeled the old man in front of her that dared ask her that question?

That was quite simple:he was the fucking Sandaime Hokage, the _Kami No Shinobi_, practically a living legend. There was no way Akira would be able to give him of all people a beating, even if she did have quite the monstrous strength when she was mad.

So, she settled for a death glare and an expression that promised murderous intentions.

"Are you on crack, or something? I'm pretty damn sure I made it clear some years ago I have no interest in becoming one of your..._shinobi_,"she nearly spat the word.

Just because he was the Hokage and a world renowned shinobi didn't mean she had to give him respect right off the bat. Respect was earned, and this one encounter with him didn't raise her option of him at all. In fact, Akira was already grouping him with the residents of Konoha that tried to give her a beating when she stole food from them. She liked to call them _'scum'_.

He chuckled-_'You wouldn't be laughing if I was ripping your fucking arms off,'_Akira thought darkly-and ruffled her hair affectionately.

She tensed, her body going stiff and rigid as she jerked out of his hold.

Akira _hated_ being touched.

He removed his hand, sighing quietly. He'd noticed her reaction, but didn't comment on it.

"You see, Akira-chan-"ignoring the sudden intensity of her glare, he continued on, "you have great chakra reserves, very big for someone of your age. You see, this is problematic, because you are a civilian, not a shinobi. Your chakra is untamed and wild, and if you don't learn to control it properly, you could accidently hurt someone by using it unconsciously or unintentionally, perhaps in a time of great emotional distress. You see the problem." He paused, gazing at Akira's unyielding glare. "And I think you have the potential to be a great shinobi. Such potential cannot be wasted."

Akira _snapped_. "I don't want to be a shinobi!"she screamed, slamming her fists down onto his desk with great force, and small cracks appeared.

Sarutobi remained calm. "Well, unfortunatey for you, you need to become one if you want to control your chakra, which is why I've already taken the liberty of registering you into the Academy. Your sensei is expecting you to attend class today."

Akira wanted so badly to punch him at that moment, to _hurt _him, to break his bones and break them apart into tiny pieces. What gave him the right to decide her life for her, to dictate it? It was _unfair _and..and...

Konoha was unfair. The residents were unfair. Their fucking Hokage was unfair.

And Akira was used to it, but she still couldn't help the urge to lash out, to hurt them at the slightest insult.

Akira gritted her teeth, a sort of hot fury washing over her. Fine. She would become a shinobi for this useless village.

But she was not going to take their shit and do nothing.

**Later on**

"Hokage-sama!"

A man with a strange scar across the bridge of his nose stepped forward just as the Hokage and a glaring Akira entered his office.

"Hello, Iruka,"Sarutobi greeted the young Chuunin warmly.

Iruka's eyes caught sight of the petite redhead with Sarutobi. "Is this...?"

"Indeed,"the old man replied. "This is Uzumaki Akira."

Iruka's eyes flashed with recognisation. "I see..." He offered her a cautious, but tentative smile. "Hello, Uzumaki-san. I'm Unimo Iruka, and I'll be your sensei."

If anything, she looked absolutely murderous now. "Fuck you,"she spat, ignoring the Hokage's scolding look while Iruka's smile became more strained.

No one ever said she had to be polite to her instructors, and she certainly wasn't going to start now.

"I apologize, Iruka. Akira doesn't like people very much, and she's very blunt about a lot of things,"Sarutobi explained.

"Of course."

Sarutobi smiled, before he gave Akira a stern look. "Akira, I'm going to have to leave now. Behave yourself."

Akira stayed silent, just giving Sarutobi a look of utter loathing as he left.

Iruka took a deep breath. "Well then, why don't you follow me to class?"

**A few minutes later, in the classroom**

"Alright everybody, this is Uzumaki Akira,"Iruka announced, motioning to the girl beside him. "She's a new student here and won't know her way around the Academy for a while, so I expect you all to give her help if she asks for it and make her feel more welcome."

Akira eyed her new classmates as some of them looked back at her with varying expressions of curiosity, interest or indifference. There was a boy who appeared to be overweight while munching on some crips, a pink-haired girl with an unusually wide forehead, a lazy looking guy who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, a girl with white eyes and indigo hair, and more.

Suddenly, one of the girls shouted, "She looks like a tomato!"

There was a moment of silence, before most of the class burst into laughter, giggling while pointing fingers at Akira.

_'Tomato...?'_

A look of rage appeared on Akira's face, and before anyone could do anything, she grabbed the nearest object-a chair-and leapt at the girl who'd called her a tomato, and proceeded to beat the living shit out of her.

Iruka cringed. _'That's got to hurt,'_he thought as he hurried to stop the chaos one girl had unleashed.

It was going to be a long year.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It had been two months since her induction into the Academy, and Uzumaki Akira could say with full honesty that she _hated _it.

She hated the cold stares. The distainful sneers. The mutterings. The scornful glares the other instructors shot her when they thought the other students weren't looking. The whispers, the insults the other children gave her, and, of course, the teachers weren't noticing a thing. How the instructors just could not treat her like any other kid, and instead treated her like she was something utterly repulsive, an abomination, almost. The students who did nothing to help. There was even the occasional bullying attempt by one of them every so often, and not even Akira's reputation as someone you most definitely did not want to piss off could stop it.

Bullying was preached to them, that when you saw it you should immediately report it or take care of it yourself. _"Stop the bullying,"_said the teachers. _"Stop the bullying." _Oh, the irony!

No one bothered to help Akira; they didn't want to draw attention to themselves, or they just didn't care. At all. The only Uchiha kid in the class was an insensitive, little prick. Nara Shikamaru drawled out to stop it, but wouldn't physically do anything, and the Akamichi heir followed his lead. Inuzuka Kiba just didn't care, Aburame Shino didn't want to draw attention to himself, and Hyuga Hinata was just too shy. The children who were of civilian birth thought she was someone to avoid and really didn't care whether she was being bullied or not.

Yamanaka Ino wouldn't put up with it (bless her). But the rest of them? Rot in hell, you sons of bitches.

They weren't her friends. They didn't try, and they didn't put any effort into knowing Akira. _Really _know her, and she didn't try, either. Akira had learned long ago that friendship could only bring you so far, and it usually left you dead in a gutter. She stopped trying some years ago. She stopped caring.

Akira hated Konoha. Really, really hated Konoha, and her time at the Academy only gave her more reason to despise the village.

**The next day**

"Damn it all to hell!"

Akira glared at the green leaf in her hands that just refused to stick on her forehead and fell off almost immediately. Today, the class were instructed to perform the Leaf Concentration Practise, an exercise that is supposed to help better your chakra control and overall control of your chakra. The students were given a demonstration by Iruka, who pressed the leaf to his forehead and directed all his chakra onto the leaf to make it stick, using the leaf as a focal point.

Unfortunately for Uzumaki Akira, she wasn't doing very well. Other students such as Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino and Hyuga Hinata were able to make their leaf stick for more than a minute, whille Akira was the furthest behind with a timing of only a few seconds.

At her shout, Iruka turned, paused for a moment upon seeing the owner of the voice, before smiling openly and made his way over to her.

"Having trouble, Uzumaki-san?"he asked, observing her closely.

Akira glared at him. "Are you going to try and make an example out of me, too?"she asked quite venomously.

"Of course not,"Iruka scolded. "Now, what seems to be the problem?"

Akira didn't let up on her glare, but begrudgingly said, "The leaf won't stick." She shifted her glare to the green leaf in her pale hands. "I think there's something wrong with my chakra."

Iruka's smile faded a little. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?"Akira repeated slowly. "I think there's something wrong with my chakra, that's what I mean! It's like its just overwhelming the leaf, or something!"

Iruka's eyes flashed with an emotion Akira couldn't identify. "I think you meant to say you have too much chakra, Uzumaki-san,"he said patiently with a smile. It almost seemed strained, though. As if he wanted nothing more than to _not _smile at her. "Even then, you're just an Academy student. I doubt you have too much chakra. Besides, we just started this lesson. Keep trying, and I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

As Iruka walked away, Akira felt some all too familiar emotions.

Anger. Hate. Bitterness.

The Hokage had told her she had big chakra reserves, quite large for her age. Wouldn't he have notified Iruka of this? Was it why she couldn't perform this exercise? To so easily dismiss the possibility...Iruka didn't even bother to check!

Unfair, just like his pathetic village!

Akira's eyes shone with hatred as her hands clenched into tight fists.

Fine, then. She would take a horrible grade in chakra control.

But she was not _fucking _backing down.

**Several Hours Later...**

Class couldn't have ended faster for Akira. As soon as the bell rang, she'd quickly gathered her books and her assigned homework and shot out of there like a rocket. She didn't want to stay any longer than she needed to, and that staring from Hyuga Hinata was creeping her out (she was even _blushing_, for Kami's sake! Blushing! What Hyuga-with-a-stick-up-their-uptight-ass blushed? That's right;_none_!). So, as soon as she high-tailed it out of the Academy, she headed for Konoha's Orchid (it was the only place she could really relax. There, she didn't have to be on her guard all the time. And the flowers were actually kind of nice...).

People would be surprised that the hot-headed, vulgar, tomboyish Akira prefered to relax at somewhere like _that_, of all places. Others though, would probably make some snide remark and use it as blackmail. Well, they _would_, if Akira wasn't a very easily angered girl who'd beat them to a pulp if they even tried.

Akira's expression darkened at the thought, before she was brought back to reality by the sound of birds' chirping. She tilted her head, fascinated as she watched several birds fly by.

_'Lucky them,'_she thought, _'They're free birds while I'm a caged one.'_ Scowling abruptly as she remembered how the Hokage (otherwise nicknamed by her as The Bastard) coerced her into joining the Academy, she looked at the assortment of flowers, grudgingly admitting to herself that they _were_ indeed beautiful. From roses to sunflowers to lavender;they were quite the view to look at.

However, before Akira could continue with her trek through the orchid, she let out a sharp gasp as she was suddenly yanked by her long hair and slammed against a tree.

Dots of black were swimmng in the redhead's vision, her mind reeling at the sudden explosion of pain spreading across the back of her skull. _'Fuck!'_she thought dazedly. _'I let my guard down!'_ Feeling angry at herself for lowering her guard, her eyes searched for the perpetrator.

"Well what do we have here?"A voice not familiar to her whispered harshly in her ear. "A little girl walking by herself all alone?"

Left to blink harshly against the rushing dizziness settling across her mind, Akira tried to pull herself together, already ready to snap out a biting retort.

"Why don't you shut up, you little coward!"she hissed, feeling her anger rising as she turned her head, ignoring the pain of her hair being yanked again as she locked eyes with a boy several years her senior.

Only, he was sporting a Konoha foreheadprotector on his head.

_'A Konoha Genin?_ _What does a fucking Genin want with me?'_

Akira bit back a scream as her hair was pulled harshly, giving the smug boy a murderous glare.

"Ah-ah!" He wagged his finger at her. "That's not very nice!"

"Fuck that!"she snapped, trying in vain to punch him, but his free hand clamped around her hand, gripping it harshly.

"Not of that,"he whispered. His black eyes bore into her angry violet ones. "You see, little girl, you beated up my sister." The tone of his voice got more sinister with each word. "And I intend to pay you back tenfold."

Akira didn't have much time to register his response as his grip on her hand tightened, and this time she screamed for real as her red hair was yanked more harshly than ever before.

He made a tsk noise. "_This _is your hair?" He gave her a nasty grin. "What an ugly shade of red."

There was a burning rage starting to build steadily inside Akira. Something that almost felt like hurt hit her, before she was overcome by her negative emotions. For just a moment, her eyes flashed red. "Oh?"she spat. "Well you know what? I don't like my hair either!" She forcefully pulled her hand out of his own, and struggled to move forward with her hair held tightly in his grip. In his shocked state, the boy was left holding strands of bright red hair, before he was suddenly slammed into the ground as Akira started to continuously punch his back.

"But even then, if I cared about what everyone around me thought about it, I'd have dyed my hair black long ago." An unexpected feeling of nostalgia welled up in her, but Akira concentrated solely on the boy she was beating up. "So, why don't you fuck off?" She paused to spit in his hair, before continuing, her strikes coming faster and quicker. "Why can't everyone just leave me fucking _alone_?!"

Enraged and no longer able to be reasoned with rationally, Akira contiued to beat the boy bloody until he was unconscious. Slowly stopping, she glanced at his battered form. "Serves you right,"she hissed, before turning around, about to start her trek back to her apartment.

Akira tensed as she heard whistling. "Come out!" Her eyes darted around, fists at the ready.

To her surprise, a brunette girl that didn't look much older than her stepped out of the nearby bushes. She nodded at the boy. "Not bad,"she said, a friendly smile on her face.

Akira just scowled. She was _not _in the mood for this. "Who the hell are you?"she demanded.

The girl frowned. "Well aren't you rude?" Holding her hands up in a placating gesture as Akira's expression darkened, the girl smiled again. "I'm Tenten."

And that was the start of a beautiful, onesided friendship.


End file.
